Lab News and Updates

  • 2024: Congratulations to SPIR Research Assistants Ny Ha (TRIO McNair Scholar) and Anastasia Preradovic for presenting at the Gabriel E. Gallardo Research, Student Leadership & Advocacy Symposium on their undergraduate independent research project titled: “The Intersection of Social Identity and DEI Management in the Public Sector” (pictured above).

  • 2024: Drs. Crystal Hall and Ines Jurcevic in partnership with the Evans Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) hosted the inaugural Wolfle Action Lab @EPIC to bring together practitioners and academics to examine the boundaries and potential to better support community-led change that centers equity. In Spring 2024, we brought together leaders in the community to explore questions of how to provide guidance and equity-centered, evidence-based best practices for those working at the local level.

  • 2024: SPIR RA Jinie Chon is serving with Dr. Jurcevic as members of the UW Strengthening Democracy Strategic Initiative Core Team.

  • 2024: Drs. Jurcevic and Sophie Trawalter recently published “Black and White Americans’ Perceptions of Community Equity Efforts Diverge Following the Removal of Confederate Monuments.” in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

  • 2022: Drs. Crystal Hall and Ines Jurcevic co-wrote a piece providing a brief history of how behavioral insights have been applied to complex policy problems. We describe ways in which behavioral insights have been successful and where they have fallen short, and go on to examine unintended negative consequences of nudges and provides a more nuanced examination of their impacts on behavior change. We conclude with a set of recommendations for generating more effective practical applications of psychology to the field of public policy. pdf.

  • 2022: Dr. Jurcevic was part of a team of University of Washington alumni and academics who wrote an article detailing the importance of centering equity in behavioral science applications to conservation efforts. The article can be found here.

  • 2022: Dr. Jurcevic was awarded the University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award for 2022. This is the highest teaching honor offered at the UW and Ines is so appreciative of the incredible teaching assistants who supported and co-taught with her over the years.

  • 2021: Drs. Jurcevic, Wong, Dunkel Schetter and Shapiro published a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology: Strategies for disclosing a concealable stigma: Facts and feelings?

  • 2021: Dr. Jurcevic was quoted in “New program to diversify corporate boards gets backing by Seattle-area companies” by The Seattle Times.

  • 2021: Karina Paup Byrnes (former SPIR RA) will be joining UW Law in Fall 2021 and pursuing her J.D.! Congratulations Karina! Wonderful news!

  • 2020: Drs. Jurcevic and Fyall published a new paper in the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration: Does a Business-Like Approach to Diversity in Nonprofit Organizations Have a Chilling Effect on Stakeholders?

  • 2020: Dr. Jurcevic was quoted in “How a year of protests changed Seattle” by The Seattle Times.

  • 2020: Dr. Jurcevic was quoted in “Starbucks sets ambitious goals for corporate diversity — and ties it to executive pay” by The Seattle Times.

  • 2020: Amy Willerford (former SPIR RA) will be joining the Columbia’s Department of Family and Population Health for graduate school! Amazing job, Amy! We’re so happy for you!

  • 2019: Congratulations to Amy Willerford (SPIR RA) on being accepted into the University of Washington Public Health Honors Program.

    • Over the next year, Amy will begin collaborating with public health professors, professionals and community members to design her own research into maternal and child health disparities in the Seattle area. Through this research she hopes to identify community based intervention strategies to improve maternal health and pregnancy outcomes.

  • 2018: Congratulations to Regan Gong (SPIR RA) and Taylor Halverson on being awarded a 2018-2019 Husky Seed Fund Award to develop their proposed initiative: "Promoting Diverse Identities Through Interfaith Dialogues. Learn more below:

    • "One of Many will host a large event where students, faith leaders, and community members will engage in an interfaith dialogue by sharing stories about the ways religion influences our values, norms, and policies. Rather than tokenizing a single identity, this conversation seeks to create a space that recognizes the complex ways religion contributes to diverse identities in order to create a more inclusive campus community."

  • 2018: Dr. Ines Jurcevic's recent research talk examining how community decisions to remove or keep Confederate monuments and symbols influences community member's downstream prioritization of diversity-focused institutional policies can be seen here. This research was presented at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues conference in Pittsburgh, PA.

  • 2017: Drs. Ines Jurcevic, Sophie Trawalter, Benjamin Converse, and Eileen Chou received the Local- and State-Level Policy Work Award to examine potential impacts of community decisions to keep and remove Confederate monuments in public space.